Podcasts: Convergence of the Old and New
Podcasts and Media Convergence Podcasting is a typical example of media convergence enabled by technology. With the help of the web syndication and a local device, podcasting can cover the whole gamut of media types—print, broadcast, cable, commercial, film, and everything. Among these formats, audio is the most popular, and most of them are from established radio stations. In June 2012, of the top 100 podcasts on Apple’s iTunes directory, more than one third were from traditional public service broadcasters such as National Public Radio (NPR ), American Public Media (APM) , and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) , or from commercial broadcast and cable networks, such as ESPN andNBC . Also represented on this list were podcasts from established media stars such as Adam Carolla and Kevin Smith, print media organizations such as the New Yorker , and popular televangelists such as Joel Osteen . Sprinkled among these name brand podcasts, however, were independent podcasts produced by individuals and groups who are not affiliated with traditional media organizations, such as The Partially Examined Life philosophy podcast , Above & Beyond , a trance music podcast, and Coffee Break Spanish , a language learning podcast. Radio and Podcasts With the help of podcasts, it’s easier than ever to incorporate traditional radio and podcasts to reach a broad audience. What makes radio important for its immediate reach makes podcasts just as important for their access: scheduled or on-demand. Through distribution channels like BlogTalkRadio and iTunes, a podcast allows your content to extend its shelf life by living online in archives. For ever-green brand messages, this serves a marketer well. Public radio brands like National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Media (APM), and affliated public public stations provide full programs in podcasts as well as podcasts originals, and have become the most important players among podcasts providers. Signature programs made into podcasts are also the most downloaded podcasts online. NPR NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. Most public radio stations broadcast a mixture of NPR programs, content from rival providers American Public Media, Public Radio International and Public Radio Exchange, and locally produced programs. NPR's flagships are two drive time news broadcasts, Morning Edition and the afternoon All Things Considered; both are carried by most NPR member stations, and are two of the most popular radio programs in the country. As for podcasts, NPR provides popular podcasts like Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! (Games & Hobbies, collaborated with Chicago Public Media), Car Talk (Automotive), TED Radio Hour (Technology) and Fresh Air (Society & Culture). Challenge of Ditigal Initiative Although NPR provides most of its full programs as podcasts, audience cannot find podcasts of All Things Considered. The reason is that NPR effectively becomes a competitor to its member stations, undercutting the exclusive broadcast rights they pay for by offering its content online. Paul Farhi, who covers public media for The Washington Post, explains, "If I'm running a station in Chapel Hill or Bloomington, I pay dues to NPR to get the marquee programming that brings people to my station -- All Things Considered and Morning Edition. I don't care about your digital initiative, or your All Songs Considered a podcast -- you're siphoning my dues to build your national brand. That's the essence of the conflict." For now, audio streams of the tent-pole programs are posted on NPR.org with a time delay and are not offered as podcasts, a compromise that satisfies no one. It was Schiller's predecessor, Ken Stern, who oversaw the aggressive move into live streaming and podcasting, making member stations unhappy enough to push him out last year. Many insiders say Schiller was chosen in part for her diplomatic skills on this very issue. Indeed, she tells me she doesn't see conflict in NPR's digital divide, but rather an "enormous opportunity ... to build the future of media in partnership with those stations." Her challenge, she says, is to "figure out a way to work together so that people in every community who go to their local NPR-member-station sites can get the benefit of NPR's international, national, and local coverage in a seamless experience." While NPR does not provide this podcast directly, they have the free API All Things Considered. Besides, users can downlod theWeekends On All Things Considered on iTunes. APM American Public Media, a nonprofit organization, is the second largest producer and distributor of public radio programming and the largest owner and operator of public radio stations in the U.S. Nearly 80 stations carry Amercian Public Media's 20+ nationawide programs including award-winning programs like A Paririe Home Companion, Marketplace, and Performance Today. The top 3 podcasts from APM are A Prairie Home Companion’s News (Comedy), MarketPlace (Business News), and The Dinner Party Download (Society & Culture). KCRW As the tastemaker of Los Angeles, California public radio station KCRW share any array of informative and entertaining podcasts. KCRW's strength lies in its recognized taste for new music from around the world, and it also podcasts razor-sharp analysis of public affairs, storytelling, and programming. Its top podcasts include KCRW's indie- and world-music show--Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW's Left, Right & Center (News&Politics), and KCRW's Today's Top Tune (Music). WNYC WNYC produces 100 hours a week of its own programming, including nationally syndicated shows like Studio 360, On the Media and Radiolab, as well as local news and interview shows that include The Leonard Lopate Show, Soundcheck and The Brian Lehrer Show. The entire schedule is streamed live over the internet (and several shows also air over XM Satellite Radio); as a result the station receives listener calls from far-flung states and even has international listeners. The most popular podcasts are Radio Lab from WNYC(natrual Science), Freakeconomics Radio(Soceity&Culture), and On the Media(News&Politics). WBEZ WBEZ is a noncommercial, public radio station broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois. Currently, WBEZ is best known nationally as the producers of This American Life through Public Radio International, and Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! through NPR. Its podcast--This American Life , journals of first-person stories, often ranks as the most downloaded podcast in the U.S., with around one million people downloading each episode. TV Shows and Podcast Video podcast, as a type of podcast, is a term used for the online delivery of video content. Video podcasts are rapidly becoming a popular format for traditional media and television networks. For example, the NBC and CBS Nightly News are just two of the two video casts that are created for "content-repurpose ." Different from the diversifed shows produced by radio stations, mostl podcasts from traditional TV stations are dedicated to news reporting and live shows. NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal News Group, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. Currently, it has 8 podcasts of its shows, including its signature programs--NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, MSNBC Rachel Maddow, and Meet the Press. Most podcasts are avaiable in both audio and video formats. CBS News CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. As a feature podcast provider on iTunes, CBS News has popular news podcasts like 60 Minutes, Face the Nation, and CBS News Weekend. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main anchor, Scott Pelley and news show 60 Minutes. These two shows are in available full audio podcasts. Different from NBC News, CBS do not produce video versions for all its podcasts, except Face the Nation. Instead, it has video podcasts for live shows such as Hotsheet Live and Grammy Special. CNN The Cable News Network (CNN) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States. Currently, it has three video podcasts availabe'''--A'''nderson Cooper 360° Daily, CNN Student News, and Fareed Zakaria GPS. HBO HBO (Home Box Office) is an American premium cable and satellite television network that is owned by Home Box Office Inc., an operating subsidiary of Time Warner. HBO's programming consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television series, along with made-for-cable movies and documentaries, boxing matches and occasional stand-up comedy and concert specials. HBO has a few but a variety of podcasts available, the talk show Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO Documentary Films, previews and trailers of popular TV series such as Game of Thrones. Print Media and Podcasts Many digital-conversant newspapers and magazines also provide podcast versions of their signature sections and columns. Podcasts of print media are not only articles read out, but also interactions with authors. Some columns dealt with cultural products such as New Yorker's DVD recommendation, and New York Times' Music Popcast are well adapted to podcasts, as audience can enjoy visiable episodes and hearable music along with the editor's picks. The New York Times The New York Times is the pionner among print media to produce podcasts. Featuring a variety of podcasts, it has 14 podcasts, not only read out articles such as the popular New York Times Book Review, but also live news videos NYT's The Lense, NYT's Editor's Choice, NYT's US News. Furthermore, it makes full use of the multimedia feature of podcasts by producing lifestyle columns that well incorporate audio and video formats. Such endeavors are film critic podcast NYT's Critics' Picks with A.O. Scott, cooking podcast NYT's The Minimalist with Mark Bittman. The Guardian The British newspaper The Guardian has multiple weekly podcasts that help the audience to efficiently get informed of what happened in the past week. Podcasts like this are The Guardian Audio Edition, which is the selected best reporting by Guardian, and also best weekly content in different areas such as Politics Weekly, Footbal Weekly, Science Weekly, Music Weekly, Cultural Weekly, and Tech Weekly. The Guardian do not use iTunes, but collaborate with audible.co.uk and Mixcloud . The New Yorker Podcasts from The New Yorker Magazine include audios of fiction writier reading their short stories-- New Yorker: Fiction, conversations about politics New Yorker: Political Scene, as well as New Yorker Comments on culture, sports, and humor. There is also animated version of its signature classic sacarstic cartoons. Videos from the New Yorker Festival and other events are also availabe in video podcasts. Podcasts from The New Yorker are available on both iTunes and Sound Cloud . Podcasts and Books Podcasts can be audio books read by someone, distributed on a scheduled basis. Audio is far more compact and portable, so audio books and similar content are now being made available as podcasts. A podcast novel (also known as a serialized audiobook or podcast audiobook) is a literary format that combines the concepts of a podcast and an audiobook. Like a traditional novel, a podcast novel is a work of long literary fiction; however, this form of novel is recorded into episodes that are delivered online over a period of time and in the end available as a complete work for download. On iTunes, audiobooks are classified in the literature section with book reviews, author interviews. There are mainly three types of audio books: free classic novels which are in public domain, such as The Classic Tales Podcasts by B. J Harrison; novels whose authors give away for free, such as Scott Sigler Audio Books by New York Times best selling novelist Scott Sigler; and fan fictions, such as Star Trek: Pioneers by DarkerProjects.com . Podcast novelists use giving away a free podcast version of their book as a form of promotion. Some novelists have even secured publishing contracts to have their novels printed. Podcast novelists have commented that podcasting their novels lets them build audiences even if they cannot get a publisher to buy their books. These audiences then make it easier to secure a printing deal with a publisher at a later date. These podcast novelists also claim the exposure that releasing a free podcast gains them makes up for the fact that they are giving away their work for free.